Before retiring for the evening I set my alarm clock to awaken at 4:30 am local time. I was not happy to see the sky heavily overcast but I did noticed that the sky to the east was clear from the horizon to about 12Â° up. Traveling due east for me would after 25 miles take you to the southern tip of Lake Michigan in Indiana. I could tell that this heavy cloud cover rolled in from the west while I slept but was not yet over the lake. I grabbed a pair of 8x50 binoculars and my sketching materials and climbed out a bedroom window onto the roof of my house to sketch. Originally I was hoping to use a telescope. At 5:00 am local time I could see both the waning crescent moon and Venus about 7Â° above the horizon. I noted the position of Venus relative to the moon and began sketching. Within 15 minutes the moon disappeared into the cloud layers followed by Venus and the view was over at about 5:16 am. The sky eventually cleared in the morning but the Lunar /Venus event was over by then.

Great Sketch Frank! I'm glad to see the two crescents, I only really got to observe it naked eye.

I planned on taking the photography route. I got to my work in time to setup my camera and tripod in time to catch the event. Unfortunately I apparently didn't get permission to photograph on company property, so our security squad shut me down about 2 minutes before Venus disappeared. I had only just started taking shots to figure out what exposure settings to use when they shut me down, and my setup wasn't the most stable, so there was lots of shake movement in the few images I did capture.

We had a pretty thick haze across the Bay to the East and South which made the moon rise look a deep incredible ruby/blood red. I wished I had brought my sketching stuff instead, they would've left me completely alone with sketching materials (though they might've come by and asked what I was doing).

I'm glad I got to see it, but I left and went to work before Venus snuck out the other side.

Beautiful sketch! I sympathize with your struggles with the clouds as this severely diminished my efforts to view the event too.

I like the way that you added the clouds just into the top of the scene as to indicate the portent of fleeting moments to observe. It tells the story of accomplished yet strained desires of observational astronomy that we as astronomers know, all too well

Frank,I wasn't able to see the event, too busy sleeping, yes a view from a small plane would be nice, but i sold my plane when i got married, the cost was too high to justify, when folks talk about the cost of being an amatuer astronomer it is chicken feed compared to the yearly cost of owning or renting a small plane, unless you get addicted to astrophotography , which is why i prefere the ancient art of sketching, much cheaper,improves your seeing ability, anyway sorry for hijacking your thread. BTW i think i just wrote the longest run-on sentence in CN history.

I just had a run-on thread thought from Tommy here. I do not usually post images or tangential photo posts to others threads but I thought you might enjoy this; again I am sorry if this looks like highjacking . It is from my post of the Lunar Occultation of Venus. The clouded scene I snapped a couple of sky images of to show my frustrations with the clouds. (I added a couple of photos to my original post and hope that that is OK in one post.) Note the horizon over Portland from the south downdown West Hills (not the city center downtown) where the moon and Venus were seen directly east, which I only saw a brief opening into the clouds for a few seconds to get the sketch image from, yet Jupiter was high into the clearing (upper right southeast sky) for the entire morning. >

Also to respond to Tommy's run-on sentence , Tommy- you might enjoy seeing the response to the post about my lecture. 'Vennard' or Mike V makes some very interesting points about the artistic process vs photography >http://www.cloudynig...5/o/all/fpart/1

This is a nice photo. Clouds cause more than their share of frustration when attempting rare astronomical observations.----T5,You are wise to get your rest. I would do the same facing a full day of work. And congratulations on the long run on sentence. I'd be proud if I had done that.